Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Phaedra Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 28, 2017

Nominated for Oscar Award for Best Costume Design, Jules Dassin's "Phaedra" (1962) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The only bonus feature on the disc is an original theatrical trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDU subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Don't cry, Phaedra

The classic play by Euripides is only a starting point for this very beautiful film directed by Jules Dassin. Indeed, the crucial events from the play are retained, but are restaged by Dassin in a contemporary setting with an intent to deliver a few important observations about the aristokratia in post-war Greece.

The great Italian actor Raf Vallone is Thanos, a wealthy Greek shipping magnate with business partners all over the world. He enjoys working and each day spends long hours overseeing massive projects worth millions of dollars. But what matters the most in his life is his family. Thanos is madly in love with his wife, Phaedra (Melina Mercouri), and constantly thinks of his son Alexis (Anthony Perkins), who is living in London.

After an exhausting business trip, Thanos asks Phaedra to travel to London and convince Alexis to return to Greece and spend a few weeks with him. It is summer and Thanos is convinced that this would be the perfect time for the family to reunite and perhaps even discuss the future of his company with Alexis. Soon after, Alexis meets his stepmother and much to his surprise discovers that she is an unusually kind and very beautiful woman. Then they meet again at the family's lavish villa in Greece, with Thanos present and barely able to contain his excitement that his son has returned home. (The story suffers a bit here because the first family gathering is used to clarify some very important bits from Thanos’ past, such as the fact that his son is from a different relationship and has essentially chosen to live abroad because he feels more British than Greek, and the manner in which the information is delivered feels a bit rushed). An important business deal then forces Thanos to leave prematurely, and immediately after that Alexis also announces that he will take the first flight back to London. However, after Thanos leaves Alexis spends the night with Phaedra, and then despite feeling emotionally overwhelmed by the experience the two choose to spend even more time together. Eventually Alexis returns to London, but his affair with Phaedra does not end. For a while they simply choose to ignore each other, pretending that the family is as strong as it has ever been. When Phaedra finally decides to confess that she is in love with Alexis, Thanos reacts like a wounded bull and the family crumbles.

The overwhelming majority of the events are seen through Phaedra’s eyes, as she struggles to come to terms with her feelings for Alexis and then begins to drift away from Thanos. It is during these moments that the film’s relationship with the classic play by Euripides seems most obvious. Gradually, it becomes very clear that some sort of a tragedy is simply inevitable.

The final act is where the film is most vulnerable. On one hand, Dassin uses the family’s struggles to expose the supposed hypocrisy of the ultra-rich in his homeland and highlight the massive gap between their reality and that of the ordinary people whose lives they fully controlled. (It is worth mentioning that if one digs deep enough, one will discover that there are actually some very interesting similarities between Thanos and the influential shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, whose glamorous life was also filled with many complicated relationships). On the other hand, Perkins’ performance actually brings a type of darker intensity that does not feel entirely appropriate for the critical social message that Dassin obviously wanted in his film. So in this final act instead of delivering a powerful and convincing climax the film actually leaves the impression that it isn’t entirely comfortable with the different attitudes and decisions of its characters, and quite possibly even with the identity its creator had chosen for it.

The film was reportedly shot with a fairly modest budget, but the spectacular footage from the Greek islands actually makes it look like a very big project. It was lensed by French cinematographer Jacques Natteau, who had already worked with Dassin on the Oscar winner Never on Sunday. (Another great looking film that shows Natteau’s brilliant technique is Claude Autant-Lara’s sizzling hot Love Is My Profession with Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot).

The great Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba the Greek, State of Siege) was also invited to score the film and he created a truly special soundtrack with unforgettable traditional themes.

Phaedra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jules Dassin's Phaedra arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

When the film was released on DVD-R via MGM's on-demand program in 2011 (see listing here), I attempted to find out if there might be a Blu-ray release further down the road and I was told that at the time the studio did not have a high-definition master available for licensing. I mention this information because the film must have been remastered -- not fully restored -- fairly recently. And it easily shows because it has an overall very pleasing balanced appearance, with only a few very light blemishes popping up here and there, and stability is excellent. Depth is very good, but there are a few areas where small density fluctuations can be observed. Also, while shadow definition is mostly quite good, there are select spots where the blacks appear a tad elevated and the visuals can have slightly more 'thicker' contrasty appearance. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections, but there is room for minor optimizations that could have produced an even better overall results. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern. Lastly, there are no large distracting cuts, debris, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report in our review. All in all, this is a very fine organic presentation of Phaedra that makes it incredibly easy to appreciate the film's impressive cinematography. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Phaedra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is stable and very clean, never suffering from the type of annoying age-related imperfections that plague many of these older films. Frankly, I don't think that in terms of clarity and depth there is actually room for substantial improvements. Perhaps some careful rebalancing work can be done to improve fluidity, but I think that these changes would qualify as cosmetic work. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report.

Phaedra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Phaedra. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Phaedra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The wife of a powerful Greek shipping magnate is driven to the brink of madness when she is forced to choose between two men that she can't stop loving in this very stylish film directed by Jules Dassin. Phaedra has been recently remastered and this Blu-ray release is yet another special treat from the folks at Olive Films who continue to bring to the high-definition format great and important films that have been missing from the market place for years. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.